Apple loses key hipster demographic

Apple Inc

End of year financial results were down again for 2012-2013 with the technology company, which brought us the iPod, iPhone and iPad, suffering what analysts call the ‘turtleneck effect’. Economist Owen Dett described this as ‘when Steve jobs died, he took with him a lot of market confidence, but also a lot of the market’. He said ‘a lot of young people, with tight jeans and vintage jackets couldn’t identify with Tim Cook’. Mr Cook took over as CEO of Apple in August 2011 when Job’s health failed. Since then Apple has continually lost market share to competing companies, principally Samsung.

City pundits are wary about the company’s future, expressing concerns about their innovations and Cook’s ability to draw a new wave of consumers. ‘He [Cook] just doesn’t look as cool as Steve did.’ Says analyst Lee Borficks, ‘Steve was the kind of guy who young people identified with. A little bit of your crazy uncle with the strange charm of my coke dealer. Cook looks like your dad. He even wears a shirt.’ This has led, according to Borficks, to a decline in interest from young, pretentious teens with poorly shaped views on consumerism and an obsession with image; defined by many as a key demographic for much of Apple’s sales because of their excess money and inhibited common sense. The company has been forced to fall back on its long-neglected core of experienced software nerds.

My crack dealer (left) Tim Cook (right)

All is not lost for Apple, however, as the company looks outwards for creative minds. A new crop of ultramodern designers have been invited to create a new style for Apple. Their most recent advert was designed by Irma Posa has pushed boundaries ‘We decided that, why would we try to sell the iPad Air the way everything else is sold. So we totally blew away the old paradigm.’ Miss Posa 17, turned heads in the board room with her new advert as well as her sneakers. ‘We decided, why not advertise a pencil instead? After 30 seconds of staring at the pencil you know people will leave thinking of the iPad Air at the end of the ad’ (you can see the new ad below). Posa went on to describe more projects from the Apple skunk-works, including a product to compete with Google Glass: iRim, a spectacle based interface styled on horn rim glasses. Miss Posa tells us ‘Its so great, they look like glasses, but have no lenses.’